Why Are the Chinese So Good at Maths?

And why we can’t name a single famous Chinese mathematician

Photo of a math class in China. Photo by Michael Reynolds. Accessed through The Conversation.

The stereotype is real. Chinese people (not everyone) are good at maths. Pick any global metric, and you’ll see — it doesn’t mean that they’re the best, quite the contrary. For instance, in the top 10 of the PISA 2018 rankings, seven countries are from East Asia (China, Macao, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea).

2018 PISA ranking. Image accessed here.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), in their 2019 assessment, offered an elaborate breakdown of their rankings; they rank students in each grade. Unsurprisingly, you’ll see the usual countries up there.

This also applies to competitive mathematics. In the International Mathematical Olympiad 2019, the top country was — as you’d expect — China. The United States is second.

We are all familiar with the stereotype. Now, try naming a famous Chinese mathematician.

Difficult, isn’t it?

If you’re like me, you would realise how ironic this feels. This irony deserves our attention. History should illuminate this.